Top News:
Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:
CNN cuts ties with commentator Jeffrey Lord after he replies “Sieg Heil!” in a Twitter discussion with the president of Media Matters for America — CNN severed ties with Jeffrey Lord on Thursday, hours after he ignited controversy by tweeting the words “Sieg Heil!” at a prominent liberal activist.
Discussion:
Mediaite, The New York Observer, Columbia Journalism Review, @realjeffreylord, Splinter, The American Spectator, @grynbaum, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, The Wrap, TVNewser, Vox, Media Matters for America, The Times of Israel, Business Insider, @goldietaylor, Newser, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, Washington Post, New York Times, Variety, @annefrankcenter, Radio and TV Talk, Politico, Mashable, Vanity Fair, TVLine, USA Today, The Hill, The Daily Caller, @jfagone, @yashar, @existentialfish, Fortune, @sarahcuda, The Week, @pkafka, Washington Post, @blakehounshell, @davidfolkenflik, @mlcalderone, New York Magazine, @mlcalderone and @yashar
Benjamin Mullin / Poynter:
A look at Guam's biggest daily paper, the Gannett-owned Pacific Daily News, a 20-person outlet whose traffic now doubles when it posts a story on North Korea — Dana Williams has covered a lot of disasters during her three-decade career as a reporter and editor. — Hurricanes in Florida.
Discussion:
Media Matters for America, @deepakadk, @cait_duffy, @justinwingerter, @newsbyschmidt, CNN, @benmullin, KTLA, The Daily Caller, The Week, BUSTLE and New York Magazine
Oliver Darcy / CNNMoney:
How Fox News rushed to publish a story about Seth Rich that it later retracted, with key source and Fox News pundit Rod Wheeler later suing the network — This is why the Seth Rich conspiracy won't disappear — For more than two months, Fox News has declined to explain the story behind …
Discussion:
@sulliview, @matthewnussbaum, @matthewnussbaum, @oliverdarcy, @ehananoki and @oliverdarcy
Tara Palmeri / Politico:
Breitbart's campaign against national security adviser H.R. McMaster seems to have done more damage to Steve Bannon — The chief White House strategist is increasingly isolated in the West Wing as new chief of staff John Kelly tries to clamp down on negative news stories.
Discussion:
Mediaite, @lpdonovan, Splinter, @drudge_report, @oliverdarcy, @jacobkornbluh, @tarapalmeri and @politico
Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:
Leaked email: HBO offered hackers who stole scripts, shows, and employee info a $250K bug bounty; source says the message was an HBO stalling tactic — The HBO hacker has struck yet again. — Variety has obtained a copy of another message released Thursday by the anonymous hacker …
Discussion:
Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian, Sputnik International, CNET, Fortune, Mashable, The Verge, Business Insider and Decider, more at Techmeme »
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
Google reveals sites that fail ad test, risk being filtered by upcoming Chrome ad blocker, including Forbes, LA Times, Lifehacker, Chicago Tribune — Publishers that have fretted about Google's plans to unleash an ad-blocking version of Chrome in 2018 can now see if their own sites' ads will be blocked by the tech giant.
Discussion:
the Econsultancy blog and Ad Age
Daniel Funke / Poynter:
Parse.ly reaches profitability and raises $6.8M in Series B funding led by Grotech Ventures and Blumberg Capital — Heads-up, Chartbeat, one of your competitors is growing — and it's growing fast. — Parse.ly, an analytics platform used by several different news organizations …
Discussion:
@alansoon
Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:
Fox News competitors like The Blaze, Newsmax, and OANN seek to steal Fox viewers as the network goes through a tumultuous period — Glenn Beck's The Blaze, Newsmax TV, One America News Network and others are among the challengers: “There's no Pepsi to FNC's Coke yet.”
Discussion:
@marklevinshow
Nyshka Chandran / CNBC:
Chinese regulators are investigating Tencent's WeChat, Baidu's Tieba, and Sina Weibo for user-generated content that “endangers national security” — - Tencent, Baidu and Sina Weibo are being investigated by Chinese cyber-security regulators for potential violations
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Reuters and BBC, more at Techmeme »
Georgia Wells / Wall Street Journal:
Snap reports Q2 revenue of $182M vs. $186.8M expected, DAUs grow 7.3M vs. 8M expected, reaching 173M, and loss grows to $443M; stock down 12%+ — Snapchat's parent hurt by intensifying competition from larger rival Facebook — Snap Inc. on Thursday said its loss nearly quadrupled …
Discussion:
Digiday, Variety, The Wrap, The Wrap, @kurtwagner8, TechCrunch, New York Times, Ad Age, Adweek, TechCrunch, The Wrap, Recode, Forbes, Fortune, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, Business Wire, AdExchanger, @nytmedia and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »
Dan Primack / Axios:
Memo: SoundCloud asks investors to approve reorganization proposal; if accepted, new $170M round will close Friday at pre-money valuation of $150M — Tomorrow is do or die for SoundCloud, the struggling streaming music company that recently laid off 40% of its staff despite having raised over $230 million in venture capital.
Discussion:
Variety, PAPERMAG, The Verge, The FADER, Variety, TechCrunch, @rmac18, @joshsternberg and @danprimack, more at Techmeme »
RELATED:
Kelly Liyakasa / AdExchanger:
Genesis Media, a publisher analytics and data science company, has merged with video ad platform Altitude Digital — Genesis Media revealed Thursday that it has merged with video ad platform Altitude Digital. — The combined entity will do business as Genesis Media. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Discussion:
PR Newswire, @kellyliyakasa and VideoNuze Analysis
Shan Wang / Nieman Lab:
Maynard Institute debuts new diversity initiatives, hopes to assist 200 journalists of color through the industry over next five years — It's bringing on new funders and announced plans to develop new cultural competency trainings and a multi-year effort to support and move through …